Collision of RC Plane and plane with with people in it...

Last week in Colorado a 46% scale RC plane flying a demo at a charity event at a private airfield got clipped by a full scale biplane with two people in it. Apparently, the video has been taken down from Youtube but there is a short article and a copy of the video over on Jalopnik (I have attempted to embed the video above). You should probably watch the whole video and read the article to get a sense of the event and the airfield before jumping to any immediate conclusions regarding blame.

I think this is a decent indicator of the complexities and responses you can expect when incidents like this eventually occur that involve amateur, unpiloted vehicles...the general aviation guys will say "get those toys out of our way!" and the UAV people will probably say something equally one-sided.

You guys with a lot of experience at managed RC events will probably see a lot of things that I don't see. The FAA is investigating, of course, and I imagine that there will be plenty of blame for just about everyone involved by the time the report comes out. A few feet one way and it would have been a near miss we might never have heard about and a few feet the other way would have produced multiple fatalities that might have defined the future of this hobby.

Most important thing, every one went home safe. Most important. I agree that having both in the air at the same time just wasn't a poor judgment thing but really REALLY bad operating scenario. Who was responsible. I think we have to look farther back than the video can show. Weeks or possibly months before to look at the event even took place to see that genesis of this one. Day of the event, well I do feel the manned pilot failing to call in a low pass could have been better but the real bur under my saddle is the ground control failing to scream bloody murder at the manned pilot to pull out. The manned AC can't see the RC and the RC pilot can't take his eyes off the RC plane to fly away from the full size AC. Like a traffic cop at an intersection, he is ultimately responsible for the operation of that field. I have been at too many events that I've spectated and helped put on to feel that either pilot was at fault. Now this is the part that I may be completely wrong on but it really did look like the RC pilot, following the directions of the fella' with the radio's instructions may have wound up flying into the path of the AC. Not sure that is a correct perception or not. The RC was over the tarmac and shortly after the fella' with the radio leaned into the RC pilot saying something, the RC moved to over the grass. I may be wrong about that. Just very glad every one went home safe.

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Robert Palmore August 23, 2010 at 11:14am

Most important thing, every one went home safe. Most important. I agree that having both in the air at the same time just wasn't a poor judgment thing but really REALLY bad operating scenario. Who was responsible. I think we have to look farther back than the video can show. Weeks or possibly months before to look at the event even took place to see that genesis of this one. Day of the event, well I do feel the manned pilot failing to call in a low pass could have been better but the real bur under my saddle is the ground control failing to scream bloody murder at the manned pilot to pull out. The manned AC can't see the RC and the RC pilot can't take his eyes off the RC plane to fly away from the full size AC. Like a traffic cop at an intersection, he is ultimately responsible for the operation of that field. I have been at too many events that I've spectated and helped put on to feel that either pilot was at fault. Now this is the part that I may be completely wrong on but it really did look like the RC pilot, following the directions of the fella' with the radio's instructions may have wound up flying into the path of the AC. Not sure that is a correct perception or not. The RC was over the tarmac and shortly after the fella' with the radio leaned into the RC pilot saying something, the RC moved to over the grass. I may be wrong about that. Just very glad every one went home safe.
Tj Bordelon August 23, 2010 at 6:47am

Incident seems very relevant to me. Reminds all of us to be careful!
Frederique Pivot August 21, 2010 at 11:10pm

Let's take it positively. Even if it is not, strictly speaking, a UAV-related video, I think there is nothing wrong with that video, as long as it helps people think about 1) the implications of having UAVs sharing airspace with recreational and commercial planes in the future and 2) effective sense&avoid solutions allowing everybody to fly safely all together.
Curt Olson August 21, 2010 at 5:28pm

The relevance of this thread to me is just the picture of what could happen when an RC scale plane collides with a full scale plane. In this case the full scale plane was very lucky if everything was ok with them. If a 2lb motor or battery came through your windshield at 100+ mph, there is still plenty of opportunity for a bad outcome. If nothing else, this should be a sobering reminder that our community must put safety and separation from full scale aviation as our utmost highest priority. There are many special circumstances with this particular video of course and we can debate all day long who screwed up in this particular situation, but I think the point is that bad things can happen ... even to good people trying to do the right thing. It's good to have a healthy proportion of fear/worry about this as we fly our own aircraft. I'm a member of an RC club and even though our field is not possible to access by full scale airplanes, we have people buzzing us too low all too often, and we have planes flying in the vicinity all the time ... up to a couple per hour if the weather isn't bad. Like it or not, we do share the skies with other folks who have a bit more at stake than us. And even though this video doesn't play well with the narrative we would like to present to the world, it's something we can't be afraid to discuss.
T3

Krzysztof Bosak August 21, 2010 at 3:44pm

@@@Gary Mortimer "Detect Sense Avoid"
"Fire and forget"
"Shoot to kill"
(all sentences from the same magazine ;-) )

All, don't you think that what we saw is that
the 46% scale RC plane (a juggernaut of RC modelling)
got literally OWNED, TOTALLED and RECYCLED
by the 100% scale real plane?
Isn't it the real indication about how wing loading allows limited sturdiness of our machines when facing crash with a real plane? I think the clash shown on the video is not fair, the RC plane got no chance. Even the smoke trail generator worked on the biplane until the pilot decided to switch it off!
3D Robotics

Chris Anderson August 21, 2010 at 2:46pm

Greg,

I'm not sure where you're looking, but it's viewable in the regular place on the FAA site.

AC 91-57 Model Aircraft Operating Standards
Garry Qualls August 21, 2010 at 11:51am

Sorry if this post was more noise than signal for the DIYDrones community. I learned things from the discussion and I think there is always some inherent value in watching other people crash. I'll stay more UAV focused in the future.
Paul Marsh August 21, 2010 at 11:15am

Good point, Chris. I'll voluntarily delete my previous comments.
3D Robotics

Chris Anderson August 21, 2010 at 11:00am

For the record, we disapproved this video twice over the previous days before one of the moderators approved it last night. It's not UAV-related and has been discussed in countless other, more appropriate, places already. I'll leave it up because there are comments here and we don't like to delete people's words, but I'll remind the moderators that this is not the focus of this site.
Earl August 21, 2010 at 9:46am

RC and Aircraft in the SAME live runway ? Are you crazy ! The event scheduler need to be talked to.
Earl

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